May 15th, 2016: A lineup of students and guest speakers have been sharing their success stories and the lessons they learnt along the way at the first Canadian University Dubai (CUD) Success Stories Sunday event, hosted by the university’s new engineering community, Lighten-up!
Opening the event was the team behind the new Emirati sign-language app, Efhamni. Team member Nérimel Bessa took the audience through the students’ journey, from an initial idea to help unite the deaf and non-deaf communities in the UAE, to their success in the regional Ripples of Happiness university competition, which saw them win $7,000 to support the development of their social enterprise.
The audience then heard from 2015 CUD graduate of Environmental Health Management, Rahaf Al Saif, who has recently been appointed to represent the Middle East region at The Youth Forum for People and Wildlife. Rahaf spoke about her work experience and research in the field of conservation, and how it led to her selection to represent the region on an international stage.
Guest speakers at the event included Ahmed Ibrahim and Ahmad Kayyem, founders of online shopping platform matjar.ae, who spoke about their shared journey as graduates of Carleton University in Canadian, to the creation of their popular retail site based in the UAE. The pair shared the lessons they had learnt while working towards success, including the importance of the right attitude, a good team, and a solid market analysis.
Input from the student community continued with engineering major Bezhan Odinaev who discussed the edutainment mobile app he developed with fellow student Pedram Parvaz, which won an award in the DEWA App Master competition. The event concluded with an inspirational talk from guest speaker and renowned philosopher, Dr. Rex Bacarra, who shared his insights on ‘the Business of Love’ and ‘Life's survival tools’.
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